


Changing Tides (2 x 2)

by muchlessvermillion



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - No Sgrub Session, Alternian Revolution, Ashen Romance | Auspistice, Biological differences, Biting, Bulges and Nooks (Homestuck), Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, Canon-Typical Violence, Double Penetration, Dual Bulges (Homestuck), Enthusiastic Consent, First Kiss, First Time, Foursome - F/M/M/M, Kissing, Like three or four times, Love Confessions, Multi, Non-Traditional Quadrants, POV Alternating, Penetrative Sex, Pining, Quadrant Confusion, Requited Love, Revolution, Scratching, Self-Esteem Issues, Sexual Tension, Size Difference, Some in-character Vriska hate, Sparring, Swearing, Temperature Play, Voyeurism, Xenobiology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 10:21:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19392133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muchlessvermillion/pseuds/muchlessvermillion
Summary: The thing about Feferi Peixes was that she had never experienced enough difficulty in her life to know what the fuck she was talking about half the time, and that was a fact.Karkat and Feferi are co-leaders of the biggest rebellion Alternia's ever had, and it's starting to look like they might actually win.The problem? They're also hurtling towards a kismesissitude that could endanger everything they've worked for, not to mention Karkat himself.It might be up to Eridan to fix things.It might be up to Sollux to help.





	1. Karkat

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ChloroformFish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChloroformFish/gifts).



> The prompt I worked off of was:  
> Eridan does his damn best to be an auspistice for Karkat and Feferi. Sollux is just here to mack on all three.  
> My idea here is that troll quadrants are complicated, even for trolls, so it would be neat to see some young trolls figure out how to do romance. YA fiction/drama/hurt-comfort vibes with added troll cultural elements (darker themes like murder that are normalized for trolls). This could be canon-compliant or an AU, that's up to you.
> 
> I had so much fun with this, so thank you! I genuinely loved all your prompts and had a hell of a time choosing one. I really hope you like this, and that it's what you wanted. 
> 
> Each chapter is a different character's POV, which I HOPE is obvious, but wanted to say here just in case.

* * *

The thing about Feferi Peixes was that she had never experienced enough difficulty in her life to know what the fuck she was talking about half the time, and that was a fact. 

Sure, there was that whole ten-sweep death sentence thing, and that had probably weighed on her. But aside from that, the heiress was goddamn _royalty._ A God walking among mortals. Everyone bent and scraped to follow her lead, to flatter her, to tell her how good and strong and pretty and toothy she was. She had everything she could ever want, everyone was too afraid to properly argue with her, and her only experience with how bad things sucked was secondhand. She had some okay ideas, sure, some knowledge about how the government worked and what highbloods wanted, but when it came to the slightest understanding of what it was like for lowbloods every day? Of what being a mutant, or disabled, or any kind of outlier freak felt like? She didn't know shit.

And Karkat? You know, the so-called joint leader of this slipshod rebellion? He fucking DID know shit. So excuse him if he wasn't about to just take Princess Perfect's shittier ideas lying down.

He was not going to shut up, and he was not going to "clam down". Even the Condesce couldn't make him do that shit, which was why he was running a revolution against her. Co-running. Whatever. Voice and vehicle of the people, and all that. Spearheaded by Karkat Vantas and Feferi Peixes.

There were others involved, obviously. Friends, at first, and then strangers. It spread like a fungus on the underside of the empire, carried in codes and secrets. It wasn't huge, yet, but it was _something_. It was substantial. It was kind of looking like they might have a chance, like Feferi could fight the Condesce and win, like Karkat could speak in a way that touched enough people and got them to open their eyes, like they could plan and fight and create. The Empire was already scared of them -- or at least scared of the elusive hints they'd seen, because they weren't just sitting there out in the open like fucking idiots. Sollux erased the trail everywhere they went, Nepeta scouted ahead, Equius shut down cameras and silenced the airwaves. They were whispers. But whispers spread. 

So, yeah, you could say it was going pretty well.

Aside from, uh, one specific issue.

“For the _last time_ , these strategies --which, may I point out, _include the utilization lowblood forces_ \-- are fucking useless without input from a diverse set of lowblood voices! I literally can’t believe I’m saying this again, because I’m pretty sure I’ve already said it seventy billion fucking times! I’m not even going to say it next time, I’m just going to make a goddamn t-shirt instead and wear it to every meeting and POINT at it whenever you say something stupid.” 

“They’re _potential_ battle strategies, Karcrab, at a _planning_ meeting! By all means, shore your concerns, that’s what this whole thing is for! I’m just bringing in ideas! You know, to plan with! It’s naut set in stone, for Gl'bgolyb’s sake!” Feferi spread her perfectly-manicured hands wide, taking in the circumference of the table in the smallest of the strategy rooms housed in the rebellion’s current base. Around it sat only the innermost circle, so Karkat could concede she had at least the tiniest fragment of a point, in that they weren’t giving out orders or presenting organized plans to a broader audience. But it was still _bullshit_. And he was ready to tell her exactly how bullshit.

Karkat carefully unclenched his fangs, and leaned towards Feferi over the map spread out between them, his knuckles digging into the table’s worn varnish. He made an attempt to get his voice all hard sugar like Feferi did sometimes, but he had a feeling he was failing.

“And you couldn’t, I don’t know, _talk_ to some lowbloods before you presented this half-baked plan to me, who now has to deal with it in public? Maybe some lowbloods that make up the forces you’re discussing utilizing after the Empress falls, or some lowbloods who understand what abilities and numbers would be needed for a takedown of that size? Maybe, if you had, someone else could take on the dubious honor of telling you you’re wrong about things.”

As if anyone would. Even revolutionary lowbloods, especially those that didn’t know her well, were often too afraid of Feferi to bash heads with her, stuck with the fear of a pair of flashy fins and a seadweller-sharp set of fangs that had been trained into them since hatching. Or maybe it was evolutionary; hundreds of thousands of years of smiling, scaly creatures digging into your arteries with webbed claws leaving an imprint in the lowblood pan, making your whole body shut down to try and keep you from doing something you couldn’t possibly take back.

It was a good thing Karkat wasn’t technically a lowblood. Even if he did sometimes have to fight through the innate urge to sit down and shut up and let Peixes have her way. 

But if he didn’t tell her how it was, who would?

“I _know_ what lowbloods can do,” Feferi retorted with a scoff, which was absolutely the wrong thing to say. Karkat’s claws scored a line into the table, just skirting the map, which they _really_ should keep intact, even if Sollux kept insisting he could make a way better hologram in a second. If he did end up doing that, he’d still need the real thing as a base.

“Like _fuck_ you do!” he exploded, unintentionally loud.

At least one of their friends jumped, and Karkat aimed his wild eyes on their audience, all varying degrees of rapt.

Sollux was grinning like 12th Perigree’s Eve come early, like he usually did, tilting his chair so far back it was a miracle it hadn’t tipped over yet. Equius was very purposely not even looking at them, and Nepeta was doodling with his back as a desk. Kanaya had a nail file out, but her eyes were still keen over the tips of her claws. Karkat wasn’t even sure where Tavros had gone, somehow, even though he would have wheeled past them to get to the door. Karkat hoped he was just pissing, or something; it was fucking rude to leave in the middle of a meeting he was instrumental at. Terezi wasn’t staring like Sollux was, for obvious reasons, but she sure was smiling, all those pointy teeth on full-frontal display. Eridan had his thumb nail stuck between his front fangs, his eyes fixed between them like he was keeping score, and biting his nails was a habit he _hated_ , scolded other people about, got on Sollux over, so he had to be really out of it.

Karkat swallowed, and tried to turn down the volume in his head. This time, his words came out as a ferocious whisper, still louder than he wanted. “You don’t know _shit_ about lowbloods. At the very least, you do not know more about lowbloods than _actual fucking lowbloods,_ Peixes, this is elementary stuff. This is early-stage revolutionary schoolfeeding, you nookstuff, how fucking obvious is ‘listen to lowbloods in your lowblood revolution’, holy SHIT--”

“It’s an everyone revolution!” Feferi interrupted, shifting on her feet and crossing her arms. Her mouth was curved into a soft little frown, and he was even angrier because she wasn’t showing that this argument was getting to her yet. The times when he got her to lose control were better. More satisfying, at least, didn’t leave him itching at his skin afterwards because he’d thrown his best out and she’d just looked at him and suggested they take a fucking break, like an asshole, the obvious implication of ‘before you say something you’ll regret’ shadowing her words. Feferi had this habit, when they were arguing, of drawing herself up, making it clear just how big she was in comparison, long-legged and tall-horned and leaving him smaller in both directions and having to crane his neck to look her in the eye. Karkat had no idea if she did it on purpose, but he hated it with a passion anyway. “ _Everyone_ needs this, Karcrab, everyone is hurt by what Alternia is like now. You know that just as much as anenomeone does, it’s in more than half your speeches.” 

“Don’t _call_ me that -- but fucking fine, okay, listen to lowbloods in your revolution for everyone, in which lowbloods are clearly the biggest beneficieries because their lives SUCK the most, is that better, your highness, does that tickle your bulge in all the right ways, have I adjusted my wording enough for my argument to actually penetrate your aural orifices? Can you hear me now, Peixes?” There was a rattling hiss from Feferi’s thorax in response. Her fangs had come out to play, just peeking through her lips as she drew them back. Good.

Despite Karkat’s best efforts his volume had risen again, but he charged through anyway. “You don’t fucking ‘know what lowbloods can do’ because you are _not_ a lowblood, and you have never _been_ a lowblood, and you never _will_ be a lowblood, and I’m trying to keep this whole thing from falling apart at the hands of highblood loyalists who will hatch another heiress to put on the throne the second the Condesce is dead and they’ve figured out you’re gunning for hemoequality, which means you have to stop wasting my fucking time making plans where you _assume_ you know ‘what lowbloods can do’ from your fucking fuschia perspective where you somehow have no idea that not everyone can lift a scuttlebuggy overhead and most people can’t goddamn swim, and you aren’t aware of the ways in which powers and abilities that lowbloods and ONLY lowbloods have can help us, because you only have a secondhand knowledge of how they fucking work and you haven’t bothered to _ask_ because you have your head stuck up your own salty pink nook!”

Karkat ran out of breath before he ran out of words. Somehow, as he went on, he had gotten louder and louder, which meant by the end of his tirade he was flushed in the face and a little light-headed, punctuating his sentence with one sharp, shaky inhale. He had gotten closer, too, straining on his toes to push towards Feferi… who was leaning towards him in return, despite the amount she’d had to hunch down to get there. She was _right there,_ her eyes narrowed and her teeth gleaming, and as he watched her expression, she hooked a clawed hand into the collar of his shirt, and yanked. Karkat stumbled slightly, almost off-balance, but caught himself with a hand hard on the table.

His pusher was pounding. Every atom of his body was telling him he was the closest he’d ever been to an abyss.

“Now you listen to _me_ , Karkat Vantas,” she said, all ice, and Karkat’s throat went tight. “You can give me all the feedback that you’d like, you can correct my plans until you go hoarse, I am _open_ to changing my mind, unlike _some_ hardheaded, stubborn people that are closed tighter than a clam trying not to give up a pearl. But the way you’re speaking to me is _not_ just about this specific plan any longer, and I will _not_ have my highest general holding out on me, or undermining me to this extent in front of the others. If this had been a more public meeting, if I trusted anyone in this room the _slightest_ bit less, you’d be dealing with a whale of a storm right about now. And what that means is this _can’t_ keep happening like this. This will _not_ become a pattern. Maybe I’m wrong! Maybe I am! It’s certainly possible!” She paused, and then, like it pained her to admit it; “No, you know what, you’re right, I _am_ wrong. About this one specific thing. And do you know what that means? What that means is you fucking _work_ with me, as my general, as my writer, as my _frond_ and my co-leader, you show me the things I haven’t had the experience to know instead of blaming me for not knowing them. You _fucking fix it,_ Karkat. We fucking fix it. So I will run my plans by you before our preliminary meetings from now on, so you can _fix what’s broken_ , so you can _show me_ , and in return you will take what _I_ know best, and you will _listen_. And you will never, ever, not even ONCE talk to me like that in front of a broader audience than the people in this room, because we have to present an united front and the last fucking thing we need is the easily shaken among us thinking their leaders can’t hold themselves together.”

Karkat swallowed, hard.

“The easily shaken shouldn’t be in our dangerous revolution, anyway.”

“Karkat.”

“Okay, FUCK, fine, show me your stupid plans, I’ll make them better, that’s what I _wanted_ to start with. I said I wanted that out loud, don’t you dare act like you’re getting the better deal, here. I’ll do you the generous favor of fixing your shit.”

Her hand was still fisted in his shirt. He was still balancing on his tip-toes, ever so slightly wobbly. But her still-showing teeth had been reshaped into something a little more pleased, despite the fact that she had made no effort to back off.

“Good,” she said, and her voice was still harder than he was used to. “You do that.”

“I’m being fucking magnanimous. Don’t tell me what to--” Karkat began, only to be cut off by the sudden noise of Ampora clearing his throat, too loud to be an accident.

“Ah,” Eridan said, when both their heads swiveled towards him, like he somehow hadn’t been expecting it to work. “I was just thinkin’, if you guys are goin’ over the plans again, maybe we should end the meetin’ here and come back to it next time.”

“Aw, ED,” Sollux grumbled, whiny like an underfed grub. “It was just about to get good again.” Eridan cut a sharp look in his direction in response, which Sollux thoroughly ignored.

“Right!” Feferi chirped, suddenly all cheer. “Good idea, Erifin! We should adjourn!”

“Don’t go deciding that all by yourself,” Karkat snapped, and then looked out on the sea of his closest friends, all staring back at him as he hung in the heiress’s grip. Even Equius had deigned to pause his staring contest with the wall. Karkat coughed, a rough sound. “Uh. Yeah, you know what? Meeting adjourned.” Terezi cackled in response, which was so unhelpful she had to be doing it on purpose.

“Might wanna let him go, Fef,” Eridan pointed out, unfolding himself from his shitty chair like he was getting off a throne.

“Right!” Feferi said again, bright, and released her grip on Karkat all at once.

He dropped his full weight back on his feet, hard. Most of his shirt came with him. The patch that had been most wrapped up in Feferi’s claws stayed.

She had gripped him so hard it had come apart in her hand while they were arguing, and he hadn’t even noticed. He was left with a jagged tear right down the front, a slit of bare thorax to where his pusher beat in his chest.

Everyone stared for a moment at Feferi’s hand, now adorned with a torn piece of gray fabric.

“I think it’s a good look on you, KK,” Sollux said with a teasing leer, effectively breaking the silence. “You should rip your clothes more often. Or FF should, maybe.”

Karkat turned on his heel and stomped from the room, sloppily aiming a jutting middle finger behind him as he went. He needed a fucking -- a fucking _something._ Drink. Nap. Better friends. To curl up in his respiteblock with a sopor patch until everything went away.

Whatever it was he needed, he was going to go get it, because he was pretty sure that if he didn’t he was going to _die._


	2. Eridan

The thing about Karkat Vantas and Feferi Peixes was that they were charring so very pitch that tar itself might be jealous, and just about everyone could see it. And it was making everyone uncomfortable, not least because it wasn’t at all official. Eridan was pretty sure it wasn’t all that discussed, neither, so it was just this big seething mass between them that they couldn’t control because they hadn’t done shit to make it manageable yet, or even identified it aloud so they could know to make it a little less obvious in polite company. He kinda sounded like Kar, when he thought shit like that, but if Kar wasn’t gonna be Kar in this situation then _someone_ had to.

So. It was making everyone uncomfortable. Or almost everyone, anyway. Eridan honestly didn’t feel all that uncomfortable, and he was pretty sure Sol was enjoyin’ it, the pervert. Nep was probably just updating her shipping wall to match, and Makara was too oblivious to see what was happening right in front of him, and Pyrope had made uncomfortable her bitch so long ago that Eridan wasn’t sure she was capable of feeling it anymore.

But other people. Zahhak, for sure, and probably Nitram. Kan, if only because she knew she wasn’t really ashen for them but wanted to fix everything so bad that she almost wished she was. Vris, not that she’d ever admit it. (And she was hardly even at the smaller planning meetings, because Kar didn’t trust her, so it was definitely leakin’ into the outside world.)

And the nobodies. Or, well, not the nobodies, Kar hated when he said shit like that. The… outsiders. The secondary characters, the backbone of the revolution. The people Eridan didn’t know so well because he mostly did behind the scenes stuff, but were technically really important for their success. The people that didn’t know Kar and Fef so well, either, which meant some could see something was off but not necessarily tell what, which made some of them uneasy, which wasn’t good for morale, which was just as important in a deadly rebellion as on a mutinous ship. It was mostly bad for the folks that dealt with Kar and Fef as a team, rather than being delegated to the care of one or another, but rumors spread. Their whole damn revolution rode on the back of the fact that rumors spread. And the rumors could sink this whole fuckin’ thing if it kept up like this, if people were too stupid to realize they were pitching for each other instead of just infighting.

And in Eridan’s experience, people were plenty stupid.

It’d be a real shame if that cocked this whole thing up. They were kinda doing well. They’d gotten way further than Eridan had ever thought they would, even when he signed on for it. He’d figured that if it was a suicide mission, it was a suicide mission no one else seemed willing to get talked out of, so he might as well go down with his crew like a respectable captain. And then word had started to spread, and it turned out Kar was way better at talking without insults than he'd ever anticipated, and Fef's training was just making her more vicious than he'd dreamed she'd be even back when that was all he wanted from her. Then there was traction being gained, and recruits they had to vet real careful in case one of them was an assassin, because they were suddenly enough of a threat that the Empire sat up and took notice, even if they probably weren't realizing just how serious it was, yet. And soon enough, Eridan's probable suicide mission was looking something like hopeful.

He didn't want to get ahead of himself, really. He knew the Empire was big and bad, and the Empress was bigger and badder. This could still all crash down around their ears in a fiery storm. But he was gonna be real peeved if it got messed up just because nobody'd ever seen a fuschia blackflirt before. If they were gonna go down, he wanted them to go down having given it all they got. He wanted a chance for Kar to do his whole thing about planting ideas of change even in the pans of the people without the guts to join them. He wanted Fef to die having torn a great bloody gash in the Empress's side that would remind her not to underestimate an heiress. Or not to die at all.

Now, if only someone could keep Karkat and Feferi from going at each other's throats in the planning meetings.

Someone needed to corral them. Or coral them, as Fef might say. At the very least, someone had to _talk_ to them, see if they could be convinced to make things a little clearer for the masses.

Now, nobody had ever called Eridan a great mediator, or even a particularly good one. That was more Kar’s bag. But Kar was half the problem, in this particular situation, so he clearly couldn’t be trusted to do it. Hell, he got so messed up when he and Fef got into it that it was a miracle he hadn’t walked into any walls yet.

So Eridan was going to be the one to take it on. He kinda had to, actually. The fact of the matter was, though Eridan wasn’t known as any kind of adept negotiator, there was no one more suited to this particular job than him, for all sorts of reasons:

Almost no one knew Fef as well as he did. They’d grown up together. He knew how to talk to her (most of the time, with the unfortunate fact that when he messed up, he _really_ messed up, full on put his webbed feet in his mouth with no chance of getting them free again), he knew what she was like. He wasn’t pale or pink or red for her anymore, whatever he had been back when they were kids and he was trying so hard to keep her, but he still _knew_ her. He knew her well enough to get in her face when he needed to, when plenty of people still saw death in a fuschia smile and scrambled right back.

He also got Kar a lot better than most people tended to assume. They’d had all sorts of talks about relationships and the like. He’d listened to whole tons of half-incoherent midday rants on whatever trope dynamic had Vantas in its thrall. So he had a pretty good sense of what he was looking for, pitchwise. Just as important, he knew what might make Kar freak. 

And he was a seadweller.

Which, despite the place of pride hemoequality held in this whole movement, was actually kinda vital here.

He wasn’t being a jerk. (Well, no more so than usual.) He’d grown out of his half-formed wigglerhood fancies about culling all the lowbloods, which he had never genuinely wanted anyway, considering they made up a good two-thirds of the folks he could stand to talk to on a good day. Being a genocidal maniac had just felt like the only way to live up to the precedent his ancestor had set, and to be a good violetblood citizen, and to get the attention he hadn’t known how to ask for without doing what he thought was expected of him in the worst way possible, so at least the people trying to stop him would look at him while they did it. All those things Feferi had been throwing out like garbage this whole damn time, all those things he’d realized were covering up for not feeling like he was good enough as he was on his own, without Orphaner Dualscar as a skin to step into or something to make people speak to him, even if it was to tell him no. This wasn’t about seadwellers being better, or anything. It was about biology, and not the stupid hatchright to rule sorta thing he might’ve said once upon a time.

The frank, honest biological truth was that despite Fef’s intentions, no matter how gentle she tried to be, no matter how many perigrees and sweeps they might get through before it happened… a fuschia going full pitch with a lowblood mutant was almost guaranteed to kill him by accident, eventually.

Sure, maybe fuschias weren’t actually hatched to have full undemocratic control of a whole species, but there was a reason people thought so. They were too strong, they lived too long, they grew too big. Fef had nothing on the Condesce herself, but she sure as hell had a few feet on Kar, who was rounded and warm and probably done growing. Her skin was harder, her teeth were sharper. Kar could hold his own against her in a verbal sparring match, and he was pretty handy with his sickles after all this time of dedicated practice, but pitch could get messy. Pitch could get bloody.

It happened sometimes, with mismatched partners or over-violent overtures, people getting too into it and hurting someone worse than they meant to, worse than they could take back. And Fef and Kar might not have been mismatched in personality, may not been spiralling towards something unhealthy, but that didn’t mean the physical differences weren’t gonna come calling.

People knew what happened to the Empress’s black flings. There was a whole urban legend about a burgundy who survived a whole perigree, until the Empress’s interest had waned, and as a result impressed her so much she was put in charge of a whole colony. And Fef was gentler than the Condesce, sure, but an heiress in full pitch? She wasn’t going to mean to, but one day, if they kept on like this, if they dated in full without any intervention, she was gonna hurt him real fucking bad. And Kar dying would be a shame for a whole host of different reasons.

So. Someone had to say something, and if Eridan didn’t, who the fuck would? No one, probably. Unless Kan snapped and went for it, but that wouldn’t be good for anyone either. It wasn’t like Eridan was trying to go ashen on them or anything --just a friendly talk, that’s all-- but he could see Kanaya trying just that and miscalculating, no matter how good she thought she was at auspisticism. So it definitely had to be him.

The rebellion had already spent too much time in this spot; they should be scrubbing out and splitting up and reconvening in the next place real soon, before anyone could catch wind that they’d been here. Ideally, the Empire should always be finding the hideout they’d been in three whole switches ago -- no one was harboring any delusions that they wouldn’t be finding them at all. And Eridan was pretty determined to talk this out with Kar and Fef before they moved.

He went looking for them a couple nights after the disastrous prep-meeting where they’d nearly started making out on the table. They hadn’t scheduled a new one yet, so odds were they were still quibbling over what changes to make to the plan Fef had presented. (Eridan wasn’t sure why she hadn’t talked to _him_ first, too; military planning was one of the things he was _good_ at, it was part of his whole purpose here. But sometimes Fef got a notion in her head and there was no stopping her, let alone any room left for her to remember that anybody else might have an opinion, right up until the point when Kar got all heated and pissy.)

They weren’t in either of their respiteblocks, which wasn’t the greatest sign -- Eridan was kinda hoping they wouldn’t start having it out in a public area before he could get to them. That didn’t seem like too much to ask, really.

The complex wasn’t large, though, with many of their more trusted forces scattered in different spots all across Alternia and getting orders through Sol’s crazy-encrypted private network, which delivered shit imperceptibly by hitching rides on the back of other messages, or some tech thing Eridan was never gonna fully understand. He could work his way through the building. He was methodological. He was patient. He would scour every inch of this dinky little structure if he had to.

Or, he thought, as Sollux Captor stepped into the hallway, muttering something vile into the face of a tablet, he could ask someone.

“Sol,” he started, and Sollux actually looked up, which startled Eridan enough that he just stared at him dumbly for a long moment.

“ED?” Sol prompted, impatient as ever, his ragged claws tapping an uneven rhythm on the chitinous edge of his minihusk.

“Right,” Eridan responded, straightening himself up. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen Kar or Fef anywhere ‘round here, have you?”

“Why?” Sollux asked, a sneaky smile starting on his mouth. “You selling tickets?”

“No,” Eridan said, frustrated that he was getting huffy already when he knew that was exactly what Sollux wanted. “I just needed to talk to ‘em. Rebel things, you know. Plannin’ stuff, not tech stuff.”

“I don’t _just_ do tech stuff, you know. I do other things.”

“You mostly do tech stuff,” Eridan insisted, and then, determined not to be sidetracked, “have you seen them or not?”

“What if I have?” Sol asked, being difficult for no apparent reason. Eridan wondered if this was how Kar felt all the time, trying to get just about any one of their friends to be reasonable for a minute or two.

“Then you should fuckin’ tell me where they are so I can go find them and talk to them.”

“About what, though, ED?”

“Like I said. Plannin’ stuff.”

“You, uh, don’t wanna get any more specific, there?” Sollux asked, his smirk growing.

“No. You don’t gotta know, Sol, it’s not relevant to you.” Sollux planted a hand over his thorax, tucking his minihusk under his opposite arm.

“I’m _offended_ , ED, I thought this was an equal opportunity revolution. Rah, rah, shitblood rights. Don’t I have, like, a standing invite to get in on any planning session I want, or something?”

That was technically true. But Eridan had no idea why he’d invoke that right _now_ , when he’d seemed perfectly content to occasionally volley ideas in the broader meetings or through pesterchum at inconvenient times. Eridan crossed his arms over his chest, and tried not to scowl, just because Sol was already looking so damn smug. He couldn’t have him crashing this talk. It was gonna be hard enough to get it out without Captor making popcorn to watch with like it was the televised FLARP championships. With no hands, too -- he could do it with his psi. Eridan had seen it happen.

“ _Sure,_ I _guess_ , but it’s gonna be borin’! It’s not even important plannin’. Just, you know,” his eyes scanned the barren hallway. “Movin’ stuff. We’re clearin’ outta here soon.”

“Sure,” Sollux parroted. “Well, leaders one and two are in the big block, which was mysteriously vacant last I saw, so you can go do your very unimportant urgent planning.”

“ _Thank you_ ,” Eridan snapped, hoping it held enough sarcasm in it that Captor could feel it in his bones. He started in the right direction, back straight and eyes set forward despite the momentary setback.

“Hey, ED?” Sollux called, already tapping away on his screen again.

“What?” Eridan responded, without bothering to stop walking.

“You might wanna get some water, maybe take a nap. You’re looking a little bit… ashen.”

Eridan’s fins flared and purpled, but he didn’t give Sollux the satisfaction of turning around. He didn’t have to deny an accusation that was so blatantly ridiculous. 

When Eridan got to the so-called big block, which really couldn’t be considered all that big but was the best they had for all-camp meetings, it became immediately apparent that Fef and Kar were actually there. Sollux hadn’t sent him on a wild honkbeast chase, at least.

It was also immediately apparent that they were squabbling about nothing, even before Eridan had opened the door.

Great. Fantastic. Perfect timing.

“And all I am _saying,_ Peixes,” said Karkat, as Eridan braced himself and then turned the handle, “is that getting up at that hour is a crime against nature, trollkind, and whatever cruel god haunts our universe and decided to punish me, specifically, for my hubris. That’s all I’m saying.” Eridan opened the door, shut it again behind him, and tried to look casual in the entrance, but they just kept at it. He wasn’t quite sure if they hadn’t realized he was there or just didn’t care. The first one was more likely, even if it was also a little more worrying.

“Whale, I’m _sorry_ Karcrab, but that’s the only time that everyone can make it! And, uh, do you mean my _mom_ ? Are you talking about my _mom_?”

“Okay, but maybe Serket doesn’t actually need to make it, because she is the literal worst and the second it even looks like the tide is turning against us she will definitely sell our secrets to the highest bidder! And I kind of hate the way she keeps trying to wiggle in next to Sollux when we purposely seat them across the room from each other -- fuck, does she just get off on rubbing salt in the wound?” He tactfully ignored the mom thing, which was probably for the best.

“When you said that thing aboat the tide turning, was that a fishpun on porpoise?” Feferi’s face was doing something pleased and self-satisfied, and Karkat was still trying to draw himself up taller than he really was, as if that would make a difference against the inches Feferi’s horns alone gave her.

“Like hell. I’m trying to argue with you, Peixes, not play a fucking word game. Are you going to actually address the things I’m saying to you, or am I just giving my jaw a workout for fun? Am I here for mouth aerobics? When did I sign up for mouth aerobics, Feferi, because I’m pretty sure I signed up to help lead a rebellion!”

“That’s too bad!” Feferi responded, and Eridan could _see_ how much fun this back and forth was for her, how far gone she was. It made him a little sick to his stomach, the idea that it couldn’t actually go anywhere if they wanted to keep everyone safe and functioning. “You’d be good at them! Anywave. Listen, Fishka isn’t my favorite either--”

“ _Fishka_?” Karkat spat, incredulous.

“Not my best! Moving on. She’s not my favorite person, and you dolphinately know that. I haven’t forgotten what she did to Sollux. To Aradia. To Tavros, even, no matter how he feels about it now! I’m not going to forget. But having her here is helping us. She’s smart, and vicious, and she knows what she’s doing. And you already made her stop going to the little meetings! She can’t miss all the big ones, too!”

“And the worst thing we could do for her betrayal tendencies is isolate her,” Karkat grumbled, like it was being torn from him. “Which would drive her to it even if she wasn’t planning it now, and a hope for something good is better than a guaranteed bad, and maybe she’s changed, even though I highly fucking doubt it, whatever, yeah, I know.”

“Then _why_ are you fighting me aboat it?” Feferi asked, like she was genuinely curious, tilting her head in question.

“Just because I know something is true doesn’t mean I have to like it,” he muttered, his nose wrinkling like he was gearing up for another tirade. 

Eridan decided to step in before they could find something else to bicker about, rapping his ringed knuckles on the inside of the door like he wasn’t already firmly in the room. This time, they turned.

“Erifin!” Feferi said, all bubbly all at once. “Whalecome! Did you need something?”

“She does get off on it,” Eridan said, because he couldn’t think of anything else to say. How exactly do you start a conversation like the one he was planning to have? “Vris, I mean. The salt in the wound thing.”

“I fucking knew it,” Karkat said, not looking all that triumphant about being right. “So. How long were you listening to us talk like a creep, Ampora?”

“It ain’t exactly my fault you two are carping loud enough for the whole camp to hear!” Eridan objected, pulling a face at them. Feferi clapped her hands together, delighted to have a pun comrade, even if it’d just rolled off his tongue by mistake after sweeps of knowing her. “I walked straight in like _nothin’_ and you didn’t even look at me. I coulda been an assassin. You both coulda been dead, right here. You’re gettin’ too comfortable.”

“An assassfin would have to get through the whole camp first,” Feferi pointed out. “They’d have to find out where we are, and then get into the camp, and walk all the way to the middle without anyone noticing, and Nepeta is reely good at noticing.”

“I promise you, I am not even a little bit comfortable,” Karkat said, at almost the same time. “I’m not sure that’s something I’m capable of feeling. Is it an emotion? Is it a texture? Who the fuck knows, it’s never happened to me.”

“Ugh,” Eridan said, and very carefully did not tear his hair out. “Still! It’s the principal of the thing. The people in charge of our illegal rebellion can’t be lettin’ just anybody sneak up on ‘em!”

“You’re not just anybody,” Feferi replied, as if this was very obvious. “You’re our frond.”

“But you didn’t know that when I snuck up on you,” Eridan objected, pointing an authoritative finger.

“You _really_ weren’t all that sneaky, Ampora, don’t give yourself so much credit. We were busy.” Karkat looked shockingly unembarrassed.

“What, so you just kept on arguin’ about bullcarp when I walked in because you didn’t give a shit, even though you knew I was there? That’s what you’re goin’ with? You don’t see anythin’ wrong with that? Don’t you have _any_ sense of shame or decency?”

“Nope!” Feferi chirped.

“I’ve got more shame than you do,” Karkat muttered, making an entire production of rolling his eyes. “Besides,” he continued. “What exactly is wrong with what we’re doing, finfuck? We’re planning. This is the planning process. Take a good, hard look; you’re seeing where the rebel magic happens. You may not believe in magic, but you’re about to fucking start, because this is what it looks like. Me and Feferi in a room trying to figure out if the risk of pissing Serket off is worth waking up before it’s even sunset.”

“The answer was yes,” Feferi asserted, helpfully, as if Karkat might have forgotten. “I was right.”

“It’s not a question with an objective answer, Peixes!” Karkat snapped back. “Why are you _like_ this?”

Subtlety wasn’t going to work on these two. Eridan just had to go for it.

“The fuckin’ problem with what you two are doin’, Kar, is that you’ve been pitchflirting all over the damn camp, in full view of anyone unlucky enough to stumble upon your miasma of unfulfilled lust, and it’s kinda gettin’ to be an issue! That’s why Fef’s actin’ the way she is, too!”

Karkat opened his mouth and then clicked it shut again, like he wasn’t actually done processing that one. Eridan could understand the feeling. Now that he’d said it, he didn’t know what else to do. His heart and his pusher both felt like they were in his throat, knotted up while he waited to see how they’d react.

“That,” Karkat said, after a long, silent moment. “Is _not_ what we’re doing.” He wasn’t looking at Feferi.

“Like hell it ain’t,” Eridan said. He wasn’t sure why he was so nervous. He wasn’t even the one in trouble, here. He wasn’t the one that had been swanning around the base making his feelings clear to anyone with working eyes (and some without). He wasn’t the one making things worse by not talking about it -- not that he was exactly the reigning champion of talking about his feelings. “It’s so obvious, Kar. You have to know how fuckin’ obvious you’ve been. You two are always fightin’ about somethin’ stupid, even when you don’t gotta. She nearly pulled you off your damn feet the other day, in front of everyone. You’re givin’ off black vibes the color of _deep space_.”

“That is not what’s going on, Eridan, holy shit,” Karkat sputtered, his words coming quick. “I know you’ve never led anything in your sorry excuse of a life, but this is what it means to be a leader, sometimes! You get into disagreements, you fight about the important shit! It’s not automatically flirting!”

“Karcrab,” Fef said, and his head snapped up. “We _are_ flirting.” Karkat gaped at her, speechless for once -- but not for long.

“ _What_ ,” he demanded, finally, making a face like a beached fish.

“What, are you going to deny it?” Feferi crossed her arms over her chest, almost defensive. “If you’re aboat to clam you’ve never even _thought_ aboat it while we’ve been spending all this time together…”

“No, not that!” Karkat interrupted, waving a dismissive hand. “Fuck you, if you’ve been _so_ sure about how I feel, about what’s been going on with us and what it means, why the hell didn’t you _say_ anything?” Eridan watched as Feferi paused, as she shifted on her feet and drew her painted lower lip between her fangs.

“I know you couldn’t handle it,” Fef admitted at last, and Kar exploded all at once.

“Ex-fucking-scuse me?”

“Karcrab, you’re taking that differently from how I meant it.”

“How the fuck else am I supposed to take it? I could take _anything_ you could dish out Peixes. You don’t know shit about what I can handle, what I’ve handled in the past.” Feferi flashed her fangs at him in response, and Karkat bared his in return, rounder, less plentiful. Eridan stepped forward, hands outstretched between them, as if he could possibly keep them apart with force.

“Physically,” he interjected, watching Kar’s face. “Biologically. A fuschia’s kismesis doesn’t live long, if it’s a lowblood.”

“Fuck you,” Kar spat out.

“Kar,” Eridan said, coaxing. “C’mon. It’s not a value judgement. Look at her. She’s not even fully grown yet.” He gestured towards Feferi, who had her hands clenched before her, like she didn’t know what to do with them. Kar’s eyes were bright and fierce, and he kept looking between them. He settled on Fef after a moment, and Eridan realized with a start that Karkat was shaking.

“So, what?” he asked, his voice thick. “You just weren’t going to say _anything_ , ever, because you decided on your own that I can’t fucking handle you? That was the plan? You were just going to pretend it wasn’t happening?” Feferi gave him a reluctant little shrug, and Kar hissed through his teeth in response. “That’s _bullshit_ ,” he said. “That’s absolute fucking bullshit, and you _know_ it.”

“I just,” Fef said, her fingers clenching and unclenching. “Karcrab, Karkat, I want to rip you apart sometimes, and that’s _normal_ for pitch, but I actually could. I really could. That’s what scares me.” Karkat let out a frustrated growl, grinding the palm of his hand into his eye, and then wheeled on Eridan.

“And you--what the fuck are _you_ doing?”

“What do you mean?” Eridan asked. “ _I’m_ not the one doin’ dumb shit, here! I just needed you two to, you know, talk it out. Before it got too bad. People were _noticin’_. It was downright embarrassin’ for the whole movement.” Karkat scoffed.

“Oh, right, like this isn’t more ashen than a damn raincloud. Grayer than gravel. The color of fucking smoke.”

“What!” Eridan replied, more of a protest than a question. “What, no, you’re tryin’ to divert away from your own shit, that’s what’s happenin’, here. I’m just bein’ a good friend.”

“Sure,” Karkat said, “a good friend that is totally fucking hitting on us! And apparently not even aware of it, so that’s great! That’s a fun little cherry on top of this whole fucked up situation! Not that it’s _your_ fault Peixes has decided to be an asshole about this, but holy shit, there’s only so many revelations or confessions or what-the-fuck-ever that a man can handle at once, you bulgemunches, can I literally get one second to wallow in my stupid misery?”

“Karcrab is right,” Fef said, her mouth twisting as she tried to hold in a sliver of inappropriate laughter. (He’d seen that look on her face so many times he could probably identify it by touch, by now.) “You know, for once. This is _gray_ of you, Erifin. I had no idea you felt that way.” Eridan could feel his mouth drying out, his skin flushing purple, especially in the thinner membranes of his earfins. He didn’t feel as triumphant now that they were turning it back on him.

“Listen,” Eridan started, and then stopped, because he wasn’t sure where to go from there. “Listen, I’m not tryin’ to be weird, I just, you know, I figured--”

“Actshoally,” Feferi interrupted, something thoughtful in her voice. “Actshoally, why don’t we try that?”

“What?” Eridan asked, looking to Kar for support. He didn’t find any. Karkat was eyeing them both with narrowed eyes, looking like he did before he swept some poor asshole off their feet in a strife. Eridan swallowed, his throat even drier than before.

“Whaaaale,” Feferi said, “You know, if Karcrab and I can’t be together, even though we want to, because of what might happen, and you’re right here, already tipping ashen like a skiff in rough seas… isn’t it kind of perfect? And we both love you, obviously, so! Doesn’t that work?”

“She doesn’t speak for me,” Kar warned, but he was pink around his edges. Eridan’s world stopped spinning, and clicked right into place. It took him a few seconds to find his voice, both of them looking at him, waiting, while he tried to keep whatever bright feeling was bubbling up in his guts from being too obvious.

“Okay,” he said, softer than he meant. And then, because he couldn’t let them think he was going that soft; “I mean, if it’d help you, a’course. I don’t want you two idiots ruinin’ this whole revolution.”

“Of course,” Fef said, indulgent. Kar stepped forward and nudged into Eridan, pressing their shoulders together in a clumsy touch that Eridan didn’t want to end.

Then Karkat snorted, a rough sound.

“I can’t believe you didn’t realize you were hitting on us. That was _textbook_ ashen if I’ve ever seen it, Ampora.”

“Hey!” Eridan squawked. “You had to be told you were flirtin’ with Fef, apparently, you can’t fuckin’ talk!”

“I mean, I kind of knew, I just didn’t think she’d--whatever, shut the fuck up.”

Feferi laughed at them both, a high, clear sound.

Maybe this could actually work.


	3. Feferi

The thing about Karkat Vantas was that he was the most infuriating, stubborn, sharp-tongued, caring, soft-bellied troll Feferi had ever met, and he was currently coming at her with a curved sickle in each hand. 

The thing about Eridan Ampora was that he was her oldest friend, sweeter than he liked to pretend while still being a pompous ass, fussy and worried and almost as bad as she was at admitting he was wrong, and his legs were coiled like he was ready to leap as he watched them from the sidelines.

Karkat moved like a sandstorm. Twisting, twirling, never still, his center of gravity low and his feet shifting beneath him, carrying him forward and back and sideways. Feferi hated it in the same way she hated everything else he did; tinted with admiration, waiting to see how far she could push him and what he would do next. While Feferi stood tall and firm, jabbing and twirling a trident that functioned like an extension of her arm, Karkat swiped his sickles in spiralling arcs. She was stronger than him, obviously, unequivocally, but he moved with a comfort hatched of sweeps of throwing himself at the same thing, over and over, until either the wall in his way broke, or he did. She’d never had to work as hard at it.

He’d always had to work hard at everything. She’d almost understand why someone might be pale for him, if he wasn’t such a self-sabotaging asshole, if he didn’t make her so angry. 

The makeshift training grounds were hard-packed dirt beneath their feet, baked down with the Alternian sun all day while the members of the rebellion slept fitfully until moonrise. It was empty save for them. People tended to clear out when Feferi got violent. She couldn’t pretend to not know why. 

That was probably for the best. Less people here, gawking, meant more hands packing and loading and moving out. They were supposed to be in their new base, like, yesterday. 

Like the waltz she had learned when she was young, Karkat stepped forward and Feferi stepped back. She stabbed, and he dodged. Her trident sliced through the air where he had been.

She could see sweat tracing the curve of his neck. She wanted to lick it off his skin. She wanted to mark him there. His eyes were dark on hers, intent, tracking her as she moved, trying to keep up, and it wasn’t easy, it would  _ never _ be easy for him, but that was part of why she wanted to see him do it so badly. 

Fuck. 

With every near-miss, the heat under Feferi’s skin roared higher, and her trident moved faster. If she was better, she’d call for a time out, she’d gesture for Eridan, she’d stop. She didn’t.

The sweet sound of metal on metal was like a bucket of ice water. Her trident had finally come close enough to Karkat that he’d had to catch it in the cradle of two scythes, his breath heavy. He looked at her, eyes unnatural, unmistakable red, and flicked his tongue out over his lower lip. 

The dam broke. With a twist of Feferi’s wrist, both their weapons were in the dust, and she lunged at him bare-handed, crashing them both into the dirt. The air must have been knocked from Karkat’s lungs when his back hit the ground, but that didn’t stop him from winding fingers into her hair, from returning the growl that vibrated in her thorax. He was sun-warm and compact, stronger than he looked, fierce even with the round curves of his face and his horns. She wondered how his blood would taste between their mouths. She wondered if it’d be brighter than his eyes. She wondered what noises she could get him to make, if he’d ever admit defeat, what he might do to mess her up in return.

This was the sea, and for once in her life she was drowning. 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Eridan was there all at once, next to them, his sweaty hands lukewarm on her icy skin. Feferi turned her growl on him before she could catch herself, but he stood firm, one of his hands unwinding Karkat’s grip on her hair and the other squeezing gentle at her shoulder. “C’mon,” Eridan said, soft gray like an aborted pencil stroke. “This is exactly what I’m here for, you two can’t be left alone for a fuckin’ instant, really--” Even as he muttered, he untangled them from each other, and soon Feferi was sitting back on her haunches while Karkat wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, just a few feet away. 

Feferi couldn’t stop wanting to kiss him. She needed to stop staring. She turned to Eridan, instead, and found that his eyes were almost all black pupil, his purple flush dusting over his delicate collarbones, and suddenly all she wanted was to press her mouth to his, too. 

She was pretty sure this wasn’t how ashen was meant to work. 

Eridan reached to fix her bangs, rearranging them with sharp-clawed fingers, and she tried her best not to move while he did it. 

Sparring was definitely over. Karkat stumbled to his feet, his knees clearly unsteady (and what she wouldn’t do to take him to her block, show him just how difficult standing would be with his legs all jelly, maybe get Eridan on his knees in front of Karkat), collected his sickles, and gave them both a mumbled goodbye. As he moved past, he pressed his hand into Eridan’s for just a moment. Feferi watched their fingers intertwine, watched Eridan squeeze back, wondered if Karkat was going to take an icy shower or give in and find a quiet place to work his bulge. She wondered if Eridan had ever thought about it. She wondered while she watched him leave, too, saying something about giving them space. 

Feferi was left panting and worked up and not satisfied, not even a little bit. They’d only been doing this for a few days, so maybe something would change. Maybe Feferi would finally be flooded with whatever hormone made you stop wanting to stick your fangs in a boy’s throat and tug, once you had a proper ashen partner between you. 

Somehow, she doubted it. 

In one of the less-traveled public blocks, Feferi flung herself into an overstuffed cloth pile that hadn’t been packed away yet. There was a couch in here, and a variety of chairs, but the pile seemed fitting when all she wanted to do was scream her emotions out until they left her body entirely. 

She wasn’t there long before she heard steps down the hall. Despite her desire to just collapse until everyone was ready to go, Feferi prepared to sit up straight and play leader. 

Instead, she heard a familiar nasally chuckle, and went limp again in relief. 

“Hey, FF. You dead?”

“Unfortunately naut,” she responded, rolling over just enough to slit an eye open at Sollux.

“Oh, good. I’d get in major trouble if you were dead, eheh. Like, me specifically, somehow, because everything is always my fault.” The pile dipped and shifted as Sollux made himself comfortable at her side, practically buzzing with static, and Feferi turned over fully so she could smile in his direction. 

The thing about Sollux Captor was that he was her favorite person to do this with.

“Soooo,” she said, settling back into the sea of textured cloth. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Nuh-uh, no way. I’m not the one, like, smothering myself in an empty pile.” Sollux leaned back next to her, their arms just barely brushing. “You wanna talk about it?” 

“Shoallux,” Feferi groaned. 

“I mean, you obviously don’t have to, I literally can’t make you, you’re in charge of everything and I’m  _ seriously _ not the best at advice, I’m just saying that I have a pair of passable sponge clots and they’re not really doing shit right now.” When she glanced at him, he was grinning, his mouth full of too many teeth. She sighed, and tipped her head onto his shoulder, and he let her. 

“Ocray,” she said, “maybe a little.” Part of her didn’t want any of this to be pried from her lips, no matter how it felt to keep it in. But it had only been a few days, and it was already festering in her like an unclean wound, and she trusted Sollux. He was always better at this than he thought he’d be. Feferi closed her eyes, trying to think of a way to start this that wasn’t horrible, or horribly embarrassing. An answer didn’t come easily. 

“...Is it about ED and KK?” Sollux asked, after she was quiet for a little too long, and Feferi jerked upright to look at him straight-on. He shrugged at her, shoulders nearly swamped by his oversized t-shirt. “Oh, come on, don’t look at me like that, FF, it’s not as if you three haven’t been, like, stupid obvious and all over the place.”

“Ugh!” Feferi exclaimed, and flopped back down. “Does  _ everyone _ know?” Now it was Sollux’s turn to be quiet a moment too long, and she turned on her side to watch his face.

“Everyone else doesn’t pay as much attention as I do,” he said almost too quiet to be heard, and then moved onward like he hadn’t said anything. “So, what did they do? What did  _ you _ do? Don’t get me wrong, I’m here to listen because I’m, like, a good person, or whatever, but I am also here to get the juicy deets straight from the source.” Feferi gave an unladylike snort, and shoved him in the shoulder a little too hard. 

“Whale,” It took her a minute to gather her thoughts, fingers kneading the cloth at her sides. “I’m pitch for Karcrab,” she began, because that was the beginning. 

“Uh, duh,” Sollux answered, a laugh in his voice. “Everyone  _ does _ know that one. Everyone with a brain, anyway. You guys have basically been shoving each other into walls all over base.”

“We have  _ naut _ !”

“That’s why I said basically! It’s implied wall-shoving. Metaphysical wall-shoving, whatever. You look like you really want to, you’re probably doing it in your head all night. Continue your story, I’m not wasting time arguing about the content of your KK-themed blackrom fantasies.” 

Feferi bit her lip, her leg jiggling where it poked out of the pile. Sollux curled his goldblood-hot calf over hers until she stopped, not because he was strong enough to make her but because she appreciated the attempt. With a steadying breath, she continued.

“I’m pitch for Karcrab, and Erifin went ashen for both of us a few nights ago-- Don’t interrupt me again, Captor, I swear to Gl'bgolyb. He went ashen, and we’re trying it, because I’m… dangerous. For Karkat. And it’s kind of working, I guess, but it’s also sort of not? I don’t--” She shook her head, frowning so hard she could feel her fangs poking into her lower lip. “I don’t know. It’s great, it’s fine in theory, I  _ like _ Eridan as our third leaf!”

“But?” Sollux prompted.

“But… it’s not right. And it’s not working right. It’s not that I don’t want Eridan to be there. I kind of want him there too much, maybe. Ashen’s supposed to be conciliatory. I want to kiss him, but not like I want to kiss Karkat, and I want to touch him, but not like I want to touch Karkat, and I kind of want him between us differently than he’s supposed to be, and none of it is making me  _ any less pitch _ . It’s supposed to make it easier, and your third leaf isn’t supposed to make things safe by, I don’t know, letting you play tug-of-war with him until you’re less likely to hurt each other.” She glanced at Sollux to see how he was taking that, and he looked back at her, glowing eyes illuminating his face in the dim light. He waited,  maybe to see if she was done, and then turned towards her like he was telling a secret.

“Why not?” he asked.

“What?” said Feferi, unsure if she had heard him correctly.

“Why not?” he repeated. “I mean, if KK and ED are down, obviously, I’m not saying you should just go rogue, but FF, honestly. You’re running a literal revolution against societal norms, here. We’re sitting in our rebel base right now, and you’re talking about what the relationship is supposed to look like, when, like, why does it have to? If ED getting between you guys in, eheh, a more literal way, if that would work to make shit less dangerous, which it sounds like it would, why can’t ashen work like that? Who’s gonna tell you that you can’t? The Empress? You’re  _ supposed to kill her, _ I doubt your deviant sex life is gonna be her biggest concern.” 

“...Huh,” Feferi breathed out. “Huh! Holy carp!” It was like her lungs were opening up, like taking her first breath underwater in ages, like a flower unfurling in her pusher. 

“Yeah?” Sollux encouraged, looking a little smug already. 

“Sea, this is why everyone shoald talk to you! You look at the whole  _ planet _ differently, you alwaves have.”

“I don’t want everyone to talk to me, FF,” he responded, and she could tell by the way the light in his eyes shifted that he was rolling them. 

“Ocray, but everyone should!” She sat up, her leg bouncing for a different reason now. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. Oh my cod. Oh my cod. I mean, they might say no, but that is so much better than just waiting to see if I start feeling the way I’m supposed to!” She turned and reached for Sollux, squeezing his face between her hands and pressing a messy smooch to his forehead. “I  _ so _ owe you! Ocray, ocray, I’m going to talk to them now before I lose my nerve. Is that alright? We can talk about your feelings later?”

“Yeah,” Sollux responded, something weird in his voice that she didn’t have time to examine. “Good luck, I guess.”

“I’ll tell you how it goes!” Feferi said, standing with one sinuous movement. “You wouldn’t happen to know where I can find them, would you?” 

“Uh,” Sollux glanced down at his palmhusk. “Dining hall, probably. KK said something in the chat about working up an appetite. But the idiots are eating between meals, so it should be pretty quiet.”

“Thanks!” Feferi said, resisting the urge to kiss his face again, because that might be overkrill. Instead, she ran a hand over his head and turned for the door, sprinting by the time she was out in the hall. 

Feferi didn’t always like the way people got out of her way when she walked with purpose, but tonight she didn’t want any interruptions. She called cheery apologies after her as she went, passing clusters of rebels that stepped aside with boxes in their arms as she barreled down the busy hallway. 

The dining hall wasn’t empty, but it  _ was _ quiet, with only a few lone tables full of softly-speaking recruits. Feferi couldn’t bring herself to care about them, when one of the tables had Eridan and Karkat bickering about what kind of sauce was on the grubloaf. She power-walked right up to them, and didn’t miss the way Karkat colored at the sight of her. Her smile widened, going for confidence. She wasn’t sure how they’d react, not even a little bit, but pretending like it’d be okay helped. 

“Buoys!” she exclaimed, leaning her hip against their little table and knocking a cup over in the process. It splashed across the linoleum, and Feferi didn’t even flinch.

“Fucking hell, Peixes!” Karkat jumped back from the table, just barely missing a lapful of water. “What do you want now?” Feferi leaned towards him, and cheerfully curved her palm around the nape of his neck. 

“I want you,” she said, plain as could be. “And,” she reached towards Eridan, and yanked his hand until he stood. “I want you.” 

“You’re already kinda datin’ us both, Fef,” Eridan said, though he didn’t let go of her hand. “That’s the whole point of ashen.”

“Shore, but that’s naut what I want. Not entirely! Not exactly!” The few other people scattered around the block might have been staring, might have been whispering, or might have not noticed a single thing. It didn’t matter. “Sollux and I were talking,” she said, because credit where credit is due. “And I realized ashen doesn’t have to work like it does in the movies-- and, Vantas, if you interrupt me to defend movies while I’m doing this, I will leave and you will never know what I was going to say.” Karkat’s open mouth snapped shut. Good. “It doesn’t have to work like that, and I don’t want it to.”

“So what do you want?” Eridan asked, looking thoroughly confused, a little bit plaintive. 

“I want  _ you _ ,” Feferi repeated, well aware she wasn’t explaining this well. She just had to try harder. They couldn’t give a proper answer if they didn’t know what she was asking. “And I want him, and I want to be able to be pitch for him for real, and kiss him, and bite him until he bruises, and I want you to be there to make sure it’s not more than either of us can handle. And I want to learn ways for Karkat and I to be together by ourselves without any real danger, but I still want you, too. I want to be with you alone, and for you and Karkat to get that, if you want it. And I want to kiss you just to kiss you, and touch you just to touch you, and I also want to touch you the ways it might be too dangerous to touch Karkat, so he can see. I want to do dates, to the extent we can do that in hiding, alone and together and in all sorts of configurations. I want to do ashen wrong. And you might not want that back, but you had to  _ know _ , because it was going to eat me alive, and--”

And Karkat was leaning into her and crashing their mouths together like a wave against the shore, something frantic in it. He was on his toes, his hands moving to hook behind her neck so he could hold himself up, and all Feferi could do was kiss back and keep hold of Eridan’s hand and try to mind her teeth, because she could hate him and respect him and still know he was softer all over. Karkat wasn’t so careful. He took her lip between his blunt fangs and bit down hard, trying to cut but managing to bruise. She growled into his mouth, twisted her fingers into his hair, and hauled him closer, kissing him hard and quick before shoving him away again, because they were in the goddamn dining hall and Eridan hadn’t said anything yet. 

But Eridan was watching them with wide eyes like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and when Feferi touched his cheek, he melted right into it. When Feferi pushed close to kiss him (getting a snarl from Karkat, who had been trying to do the same thing), Eridan kissed her back. It was softer than kissing Karkat had been, something shivery and tentative but wanting, and when she pulled back he was panting like he’d run a mile. 

Immediately, Karkat pushed in front of her, took Eridan by the back of the neck, and kissed him fierce and for a little too long. They both looked dazed, afterwards, and the three of them were almost definitely getting stared at by now -- but what were the recruits going to do, desert a good cause just because the people in charge got laid sometimes?

Feferi couldn’t stop smiling. It was a good thing no one else was trying to kiss her right now, because she wasn’t sure she could tame her grin long enough to keep from cutting them up.

“Is that a yes?” she asked, reaching for their hands.

“We are going to  _ talk about this _ ,” Karkat hissed, the impact of it undermined by how wide his pupils had blown, the mess they’d made of his hair. “We are going to have a serious sit-down conversation about what this means, and what this is going to look like, and how we are going to make sure it doesn’t go ass up and ruin our lives.”

“Okay!” Feferi chirped. “But yes, though?”

“Yes,” he said, too breathless to be realistically grudging.

“Yeah,” Eridan agreed.

“So if I were to ask you two beautiful buoys back to my block to have a couple different types of discussions aboat this before we have to finish packing up?”

Neither of them answered right away, but Eridan started pulling them both in the right direction, trying to look as dignified as possible while trailing two people behind him like a tangled clump of seaweed.

And that was good enough for her. 


	4. Sollux

The thing about the people Sollux loved was that they were very stupid. But maybe he was very stupid too. That sure would explain being into them, and also whatever the hell he was doing right now.

Feferi had left with her gift-wrapped epiphany, and he had tried to be normal about it, tried to sit on his hands and not do anything stupid. But then the group chat chat said KK, FF, and ED were all heading to her block (bless KN, being all worried), and he had somehow ended up outside the door before he could get his stupid legs to stop carrying him there. And then it was like he _had_ to knock, because he’d already used the effort it had taken to get there, and at least this way he could get soundly rejected in a cool, fun x3 combo and get over it.

So he knocked. And Feferi opened the door quickly, with her hair mussed and her mouth a little bruised, and somehow looked happy to see him.

“Shoallux!” she chimed, reaching to hook cold fingers around his bony wrist. “Thank you.”

“Oh, uh, no problem,” he said. “You know me, super great ideas all the time and awesome at thinking. I’ll leave you to whatever you’re doing now.”

“You will not,” said Karkat, appearing just behind FF, looking just as well-kissed. “I know that face, motherfucker. Something’s wrong. Who’s dying? Are we being attacked? I swear to fucking god, Sollux, if you were about to bail when we were being attacked because you didn’t want to interrupt I will actually strangle you to unconsciousness.”

“Whoa, KK, you should at least ask for my safeword first,” said Sollux’s mouth, apparently with no input whatsoever from his head. Feferi was frowning at him, suddenly concerned, and Eridan had shown up too, smoothing out the collar on his shirt, his eyebrows knitting together. Fucking hell. “We’re not being attacked.”

“Then what is it?” Feferi asked, her eyes doing that soft thing that could almost make you forget how terrifying she was.

Sollux couldn’t tear his gaze away from the spot on her lower lip where Karkat must have nicked her with his teeth long enough to make up a convincing lie. He was trapped in a cage of his own making, because of course he was. He clenched his fists, sparks flying from his horns, and took a breath that only made it halfway to his lungs.

“Fuck, okay, let’s get this over with so you can get on with it and I can go die of shame.” He squeezed his eyes shut, like it might be better if he didn’t have to see their faces when he said it. Like he wouldn’t know how disappointed they were anyway. “I’ve got some, uh, some feelings, I guess? I mean, obviously, in general, because I’m not actually a robot, but also specific feelings? For, fuck, I know how stupid this is and how ridiculous it sounds, but. For you. Like, all three of you. And I know this is _insane_ timing, considering you just got your shit figured out, and I shouldn’t have come here, but I kinda felt like I had to say something before it got any worse, and it’s not like there was ever going to be a _good_ time for this.” This was the worst decision he had ever made. He could feel the sparks spitting off his horns more frequently, hissing as they landed.

“What quadrant?” Karkat asked, sounding weirdly open and soft, and Sollux’s eyes flew open so he could make a face at him properly for being predictable.

“Fuck, I don’t know. None, or all of them, or some weird mix, or maybe I’m vacillating at the speed of light. I’m already a mutant freakjob, why not toss one more thing on the pile? All I know is I’m having all of these feelings, like all the time, and I know I’m a hypocrite 24/7 but I realized it would be extra hypocritical of me to tell you guys to try dealing with your feelings differently when I haven’t made the slightest attempt to deal with my own, but this was stupid because you guys are clearly busy and uninterested, FUCK. I’ll go.”

“Wait!” Karkat shouted, and then immediately looked like he hadn’t meant to. “Don’t go,” he added, when Sollux froze. “Let’s talk about this, at least. You don’t have to go.”

“You reely don’t,” FF agreed, making space in the doorway like she expected him to come inside. When he didn’t move, she twined her fingers through his and hauled him in. “Sorry,” she said, not sounding all that apologetic. “I’m naut having anymore totally public talks about my feelings tonight.”

“As I recall, that was your fault, Fef,” Eridan said, though he kept his eyes fixed on Sollux. “And don’t you try tellin’ me my memory is goin’, because that was about fifteen minutes ago and I got a mind like a steel trap.” Feferi waved a dismissive hand.

“Not the point!” she replied. “The point is Sollux, right now!”

“I would prefer if it wasn’t,” Sollux volunteered, feeling like this was all spirally rapidly out of control.

“Too bad!” Feferi chimed.

“We do kinda gotta talk about this, Sol,” ED said, sounding a little more sympathetic, and wasn’t that a fucking trip and a half.

“Let me get this straight,” KK said. “You’re saying you have feelings for us? All of us?” Sollux was pretty sure if he started sparking any more he was going to turn into a legitimate fire hazard.

“Don’t make me say it again just because you’re _deaf,_ KK, holy shit.”

“I’m just trying to be sure, asshole! How can you be this deliberately antagonistic even when you’re laying your feelings out on the damn chopping block?”

“Kar,” Eridan said. “That was definitely what he was sayin’. You don’t gotta hear it again.”

KK tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling and heaved a bone shaking sigh. Sollux was pretty sure he wasn’t actually looking at anything.

“Come the fuck on,” Karkat said, quiet enough that it didn’t feel like he was talking to anyone in the room. He trained his eyes back on Sollux with enough intensity that Sollux could feel the static on his skin jump. “So we all could have been making out for perigrees. Thanks for this enthusiastic confirmation that every single one of us is a blithering idiot, this gives me so much faith in our combined abilities to reform a planet.”

“Uh, what?” Sollux asked, trying to keep the wary hope out of his voice and failing.

“What, bulgemunch, did you think you were the only one?”

“Y _es_ ,” Sollux replied, emphatic. “Yes, of course I fucking did, what the hell, KK?”

Feferi was laughing. She had her hand over her sharp-toothed mouth and was giggling into her palm. Sollux was pretty sure he was being betrayed.

“What’s so fucking funny?” Karkat snapped, which saved Sollux from having to do it himself.

“I’m sorry,” FF said, still not sounding sorry in the slightest. “It’s just--” She gestured at Karkat, breathlessly snickering. “Cod, you were so shore he wasn’t into you. And it turns out he’s into everyone!” Karkat scowled in response, grinding the toe of his shoe into the ground.

“You guys were _talking_ about me?” Sollux asked, his voice high in his throat.

“Don’t say it like that, Fef,” Eridan protested, simultaneously. “He’s not into _everyone_. I rather like bein’ a part of an exclusive group of three. You say everyone and it’s like he’s lookin’ to get with the whole camp, or somethin’.” He narrowed his eyes at Sollux. “You ain’t into the whole camp, are you?”

“No!” Sollux exclaimed. “Obviously not!” This had gone so far off-script (the script had basically just gone confession → rejection → avoiding everyone until they either forgot it had ever happened or he died) that he felt like anything could happen next. The Condesce could ride a hoofbeast through the wall and challenge him to a psionic duel. The roof could fall on them. He could wake up in his recuperacoon, six sweeps old again.

Feferi could kiss him. Eridan could kiss him. Karkat could kiss him. They could want him back. None of it was looking as impossible as it had an hour ago. Sollux swallowed hard.

“See,” Eridan said, with a firm nod. “So we’re special.”

“You’re talking like you like this,” Sollux pointed out, accusatory. “Like this is a good thing.”

“‘Course I like it,” Eridan said. “Who doesn’t want to be wanted? Big boost to my self esteem, that’s for sure.” KK leaned over and stepped on Eridan’s socked toe. “Ow, Kar!”

“I don’t sea why it wouldn’t be a good thing!” Feferi said, ignoring them both.

“Because I’m interrupting,” Sollux said, wondering if he was the only sane one left. “Because you guys aren’t interested, and I’m coming in here and, like, forcing my feelings on you when you’re in the middle of stuff? Other than KK, apparently, which is already more than I was expecting, and I’m not totally sure he isn’t about to change his mind.”

“Who says we aren’t interested?” FF asked, taking one long-legged step towards him.

“Basic logic?” Sollux offered, suddenly less sure.

“Fuck you, Captor, I’m not ‘changing my mind’. I’m allowed to like you, shitlord. Though god knows why.”

“Yes!” Sollux agreed, pointing a shaky hand in KK’s direction. “Exactly that, why the fuck would you?” Karkat rolled his eyes.

“It’s an expression,” he said, slow like he was talking to a wiggler. “I _know_ why I like you. You’re my best friend, bulgemunch. We’ve been flirting in logs and then deleting them since we were _five_. You’re an idiot and also insanely pitiful and I kind of want to punch you in the face sometimes. I didn’t think you were interested. Especially because I wasn’t sure what I wanted.”

“We have feelings jams!” FF added, like that was at all related. “Sollux, we _cuddle_. I talk to you about things I’ve never told anyone. Of course I’d be happy to add kissing you into it.” This was a lot to absorb. Sollux wasn’t sure how to deal with the idea that he hadn’t fucked up catastrophically after all.

“ED?” he asked, turning to the one person in the room who hadn’t admitted anything, yet. Eridan was tugging at his own sleeves, fastening the buttons on his cuffs and then undoing them again. He glanced up at Sollux from under his lashes, and sucked his lower lip into his mouth.

“Eridan,” Feferi warned. “You do it, or I will.”

“Alright!” Eridan said, giving up and releasing his cuffs. “Alright, fine, maybe I’ve got a teensy hint of some type’a feelins.”

“You wanna get a little more specific, chutelick?” Karkat asked, aggrieved.

“For Sol, as well as the two of you,” Eridan added. “Of the smoochin’ kind. I don’t fuckin’ know, I ain’t any good at this.” He looked at Sollux, sighing. “You’re the worst. But you kinda got a right to be, and you’re constantly savin’ our asses, no matter how much shit I give you. And you’re pretty, in an awful sorta way.”

“Oh,” Sollux said. He had never understood what it meant to be dumbfounded until this moment, not really.

“Oh!” Feferi repeated.

“So,” Sollux spoke past the sudden lump in his throat. “So all three of you might actually wanna try something?”

“Try what?” Karkat asked, and Sollux was pretty sure the asshole knew and just wanted to hear it out loud.

“Dating me,” he said, anyway, because he’d made such a fool of himself already that it couldn’t get any worse. His voice came out quieter than he wanted it to. “In, I don’t know, some weird backwards way because I can’t settle on a quadrant.”

“Fuck yeah,” Karkat said, and stepped into him. For a moment, he just touched his forehead to Sollux’s, his eyes half lidded. “We’ll figure it out,” he said, like a promise, and Sollux couldn’t take it any longer.

He leaned forward and kissed Karkat. It was awkward and uneven at first, while their lips aligned. Sollux’s teeth had never felt so huge in his mouth. But after a second, Karkat pressed back, and they fit together the way they were meant to.

Most of the world was cold to Sollux, with jet fuel running in his veins. Karkat was warmer, and he kissed like Sollux was something worth being gentle with, a hand curling over his jaw and his tongue skirting the seam of his lips. Despite Sollux’s best efforts, when Karkat pulled back it was with the thinnest line of blood beading on his mouth. Feferi reached for him, and swiped her thumb across Karkat’s lower lip, streaking it red.

“Okay,” Eridan said. “That was hot.”

“You gonna answer the man’s question, Erifin?” Feferi teased, licking the single drop of Karkat’s blood off her finger.

“Ain’t it obvious?” Eridan asked, and purpled when everyone looked at him. “Holy hell, fine. Yeah, Sol. I’d like to try datin’ you in whatever abnormal way you’re lookin’ for. Why not, right?” He leaned in, and pressed a soft kiss to the corner of Sollux’s mouth, like he wasn’t quite confident enough to really go for it.

Sollux was pretty sure that when he did get Eridan to kiss him properly, he’d end up using those violetblood needle teeth to bite the shit out of his tongue. He couldn’t wait.

“And as for me,” Feferi said, pressing the full line of her tall, cold body against Sollux’s back, draping her arms around his shoulders. “I’m pretty shore most of our fronds think we’re dating already! We might as whale make it offishal.” She tilted his chin up with a finger until his head was pressed against her chest, and kissed him from above, upside-down like that dumb superhero movie Vriska had liked when they were wigglers. She pulled back after a minute, chuckling about something

“What?” Sollux asked, when he could make his tongue work again.

“Whale, it’s just that before you showed up, we were going to…” She trailed off, but bounced her eyebrows at him helpfully. “But this is a reely nice interruption! It’s just that we’re moving right after tonight, so we’ll be leaving this block behind. I kind of wanted to give the walls a story to tell, is all!”

“Damn, FF, you really wasted no time before acting on my advice, huh?”

“Sometimes you just have to go for what you want!” She looked weirdly proud.

“In, uh, the spirit of that,” Sollux said, ignoring the way Karkat’s gaze immediately locked on him. “Is there any real reason you couldn’t, like, do that anyway, with me here? I mean, if we’re going to be dating anyway. I can leave, though, if you want to wait, figure shit out first, or if you just want… you know, weird sexy clubs alone time.”

“Yeah,” Karkat said. “Because calling our brand new relationship weird is the best possible way to get us to have sex with you.”

“Damn, Sol,” Eridan said, overshooting the teasing leer he was going for by a mile. “I always knew you were a little bit of a slut.”

“Shut up, you’ve been dating them for like two nights longer than I have. And in _ashen,_ you kinky fuck.”

Feferi looked at each of them in turn, her grin broadening.

“I don’t see why not,” she said. “As long as everyone else is ocray with it!” Karkat muffled a cough in his sleeve. Sollux would bet money he’d just choked on nothing.

“Fine by me,” Eridan said, voice already rasping into a lower register.

“Yeah,” Karkat said, once he had caught his breath. “I mean, uh. If this is going to be happening, and it sure looks like it is, then… we might as well see how we fit, right? Figure out what we all want?”

“Only you could make a fun foursome all aboat reeloceanship dynamics, Karcrab.” Feferi said, sing-song, and then her whole stance changed. “Come here, I want to see how deep you bruise.”

“Come fucking get me, then,” Karkat challenged, unmoving.

She did, crossing the space between them in two strides and pulling him close by his horns, though they were too small to use as proper handles. With a jerk of her arm, she tugged his head aside to expose the vulnerable length of his neck. He went limp in her grip, and Feferi grazed a set of vicious fangs over his skin.

She was being truly, incredibly careful, Sollux realized. Those teeth were meant for slicing, not bruising, but Karkat’s skin was darkening under them instead of spilling blood. The bruises were coming up unnaturally fast, faster than they would for gentler fangs, but it was still only bruises. Karkat’s breath shuddered, and FF changed her angle as to not cause more damage than she meant to every single time his throat moved.

Sollux wondered how badly she wanted to sink her fangs all the way through, what kind of restraint it was taking to keep her jaw open. KK reached up and scratched a vengeful path down Feferi’s shoulder, pressing hard to make an indent with those nubby claws. The path his fingers traced came up raised and white. Sollux felt his bulges thicken in his sheathe, a hot twinge that he could feel in his abdomen, in his fingertips.

Eridan was watching them with ashen worry and a half-unsheathed bulge moving against his thigh, visible through his pants. When KK tilted his head and turned FF’s mouth to the task of kissing him instead, ED let out a little sigh and reached for Sollux, hooking an elegant finger in his belt loop and reeling him in.

“Gonna kiss me for real this time, ED?” Sollux asked, breathless from absolutely everything but not far gone enough to stop being a shit. Eridan scoffed and gave Sollux exactly what he wanted; a cool mouth on his own, the firm press of Eridan’s lips, the hint of hidden teeth. Sollux slid his hand into ED’s hair and kissed him deeper, rewarded by the sudden way Eridan slumped against him, his mouth falling slack like he was ready for whatever Sollux wanted to do with it. Sollux pulled back to see Eridan’s face as he dragged two fingers over the sweet shape of his lips, as he dipped his thumb to press against the wet tip of Eridan’s tongue. And Eridan let him, eyelids fluttering like he could hardly keep them open and his mouth opening wider.

It gave Sollux all sorts of wicked ideas. There was no time to act on them, with KK suddenly hot and half naked against his side, with FF thumbing open the first few buttons on Eridan’s shirt so she could sink her fangs for real into the meat of his shoulder, but Sollux was pretty sure they had a whole future that he could use to see what else ED might open his mouth for. For now, he could lose himself in the way Karkat was pressing his fingers into his skinny hips, tugging his shirt up to get a hand splayed over his bare skin, thumbing at his grubscars like he knew how sensitive they were already. Sollux showed his appreciation, tilting his head back into the cradle of Karkat’s muscled shoulder, kissing clumsily at his jaw. Sollux could barely hear his own sounds over the blood rushing in his ears, but he could feel himself panting like a barkbeast. He clenched his thighs together, hoping that bit of friction on his nook would make him feel a little less like he was burning alive. All it did was make his bulges twist in his boxers, searching for touch they weren’t getting.

Feferi was biting a messy, obvious mark into Eridan’s seadweller-tough skin, her eyes fixed on Karkat’s. Sollux was pretty sure her gaze whispered something like _I’m hurting him how I wish I could hurt you_ (not that ED seemed to mind, exposing himself for more and moaning like a slut the whole time), but Karkat stared right back, even as he popped the top button on Sollux’s jeans. Neither of them wanted to be the first to look away, but Karkat still pressed gentle kisses to the crook of Sollux’s neck as he wiggled his hand beneath the waistband and into Sollux’s boxers, as he let the tips of Sollux’s twin bulges coil around his warm fingers. It wasn’t enough room for a real handjob, let alone for Karkat to reach his nook, but it was _something_ , and Sollux rocked his hips into it, hissing sharp through his teeth.

“I got you,” Karkat swore, because of course he couldn’t stop being like this even with a hand down someone’s pants.

“Yeah, KK,” Sollux said. “I sure _hope_ you’re not gonna leave me hanging with my bulges out.”

“You don’t get to snark at me when you’re this fucking wet,” Karkat replied, and interrupted Sollux’s comeback by squeezing his bulgetips between his thumb and forefinger, so all Sollux could do was make harsh sound in his throat and jerk forward into Karkat’s hand. 

“I’m taking my fucking pants off,” Sollux warned, once his pan was unscrambled enough to form words. He shoved them down his legs and wriggled, swearing when they caught on his shoes and kicking those off too. And then he felt so stupid just standing there naked in a t-shirt that he pulled it over his head and threw it to the floor, so he could feel stupid fully naked instead. When he looked up, KK was looking at him with hungry eyes -- and so was ED, who was just as naked, his ridged bulge smearing purple between his thighs. Sollux looked back at Eridan, at the strangely fragile shape of him, and wanted to touch him so badly his hand twitched.

“Hellooo,” said Feferi as she beat him to it, reaching to cup both their bulges in one icy hand each. Eridan cursed a blue streak in response, even as he pushed into her grip. Sollux was just grateful to be properly touched, far too aware of the way his empty nook pulsed for it. “For _me_?” FF asked, with an anglerfish grin. “You shouldn’t have!” Somehow, she was still fully dressed, hardly disheveled save for the blood and lipstick around her mouth.

“For you, my ass,” Karkat said, voice rough, and tore a strip straight down the middle of Feferi’s dress.

“Hey!” she protested, her voice sharp. “I _like_ that dress!”

“Payback, bitch,” said Karkat, his smile swallowed in the next second by Feferi’s ferocious mouth, Eridan pressed between them so Feferi had to kiss Karkat over his head. Sollux watched as Karkat found Eridan’s messy bulge with searching fingers, even as he bit at Feferi’s lips, as he curved his warm palm to give ED’s bulge something to squirm against.

Feferi’s dress, newly ripped, started to inch down over her broad shoulders, every second a new stretch of skin. With a frustrated sound that she muffled into KK’s mouth, she pulled it apart, leaving her nearly bare, save for a pair of comfortable once-white underwear that were doing nothing to contain a dripping pink bulge. Sollux made a choked-off noise that got Eridan to open hazy eyes in his direction, and Sollux jerked his head in the right direction.

“That’s, uh, proportional,” Sollux said, and Eridan couldn’t turn to see what he meant but Feferi released Karkat’s mouth to laugh. (Probably about time; stretching to reach him couldn’t be good for her neck, with him flat on his feet and refusing to reach back.)

“That a problem?” FF asked, arching an eyebrow like she already knew the answer was no. “It’s ocray if it is, we can stop!”

Sollux didn’t want to stop.

“It is _not_ a problem,” he promised, and she watched him the whole time she nudged her underthings down the generous curve of her hips, until her bulge could move freely. _Now_ Eridan could feel it, and he gave a shaky, open-mouthed moan right away, his thighs splaying wide right where he stood.

“Kar,” Eridan managed, pressing one cool hand to Karkat’s naked chest. “You gonna take your pants off?”

Karkat narrowed his eyes at all of them for a moment, despite the flush sitting bright on his cheeks and the lust-dark color of his eyes.

“Yeah,” he said. “I guess I am.” And then he stepped back to yank his jeans down his legs like they’d personally offended him. His bulge was thick and so red it was almost unreal, the color so rare it reminded Sollux of a bad photoshop. He wanted to tell him that, inane as it was, but Eridan made a wrecked sound, this ragged gasp, and Sollux was distracted again. (There was so much to focus on. For once, it was all good.)

“Fuck,” Eridan was moaning, his head lolling back like his strings had been cut. “Fef, holy shit.”

Feferi’s massive bulge was between his thighs, no doubt dragging up against the sensitive opening of his nook, and he was rocking back into it, his own bulge thrashing against the gentle curve of his stomach. Sollux was almost jealous, but the sight of it was so pretty he couldn’t manage to be.

“You gonna hog him, Peixes?” Karkat asked, fingers trailing over the slick length of his own red-hot bulge.

“You gonna let me?” Feferi asked sweetly, batting her eyelashes at him. Karkat growled and stepped back into range, his fingers dipping down between Eridan’s spread thighs. Eridan cursed again, his thighs tense and his eyes closed.

“Could you--” ED started, stopping to gasp and shift his stance. “Fuck, Fef, Kar, could you-- I need someone to fuck me. I need somethin’, please.” Karkat’s hand tightened on his own bulge in response, hissing something inaudible between his teeth.

This was more vulnerable than Sollux had ever thought he’d see from Eridan. More polite, too. Who knew all you had to do was get his nook wet?

“Who do you want, Eri?” Feferi asked, one hand on his waist and the other gouging something bloody into Karkat’s nearest hip.

“Both of you?” ED asked, hopeful and lost.

“Fuck,” Karkat said, and grabbed Eridan’s chin to get a proper look at his face. “Are you _sure_? Think about your answer carefully, because I _will_ stop at any time but I don’t want to try any shit that’ll tear you in half.” Eridan nodded, eyes wide and wet.

“I can take it, promise. I’ll say if I can’t.”

“Will you?” KK asked, suspicious. “I fucking swear, Ampora, you _better._ I don’t want to hurt you any more than you’re looking for, and if you lie to me about this I will never touch your bulge again.”

“I _swear_ , Kar,” Eridan urged, dropping his head against KK’s collarbone. “I’ll tell you, I swear.”

“Weeell,” Feferi drawled, using the hand on Eridan’s waist to move him where she wanted him. “Say when, I guess!”

Karkat and Feferi fought while they did it. With their bulges, thrashing against each other even as they worked slow into the tight grip of Eridan’s slick nook. With their teeth, snapping at the air, clamping down on Eridan’s skin when they couldn’t reach each other. Their hands grabbed and gripped and clawed at each other while their mouths murmured gentle into Eridan’s ears. They went from petting him while he moaned and shook to sniping at each other and back. Karkat was so warm, and Feferi so deep-sea cold, Sollux could only imagine what that would feel like all at once, all around you, inside you. It might not be as obvious to Eridan, as another seadweller -- but it would be to Sollux. At the eye of the storm in a pitch vortex, chilled on one side and overheating on the other, stretched so wide you could feel it in your lungs but loved by everyone involved… he wanted a chance at that so much he could barely breathe.

Tug-of-war, Feferi had said, when she had told Sollux what she wasn’t supposed to want. He knew what she meant, now.

When Eridan was as full of bulge as the two of them could make him, ED’s eyelashes were wet and there was drool down his chin, but he looked as satisfied as if he’d just won a sparring match.

“Told you,” Eridan panted out, and then cried out and tossed his head when they shifted their hips.

“Yeah, yeah,” Karkat replied, his jaw clenched tight. “Congrats. You’re a black hole.” ED snorted out a laugh that transformed into another moan halfway out of his mouth. Feferi stroked his side, giggling into his neck.

Sollux was horny and dry-mouthed and overheated and suddenly so, so far from them, standing to the side in a nearly-empty block while the three people he loved most writhed skin to skin.

It made sense, really. What did they actually need him for, with a complete three-leaf club? This had been stupid from the start, and he had let himself get caught up in hoping, which never ended well. He was an idiot.

“Sol,” ED said, and Sollux looked to find Eridan reaching for him, his hand outstretched. FF and KK were watching him, waiting. “C’mon, we want you over here.”

Okay, maybe he wasn’t that much of an idiot.

Sollux stumbled to them on unsteady feet and ended up against Eridan’s front, feeling his body shake. Karkat’s warm hand slid between them, coaxed and stroked at Sollux’s bulges until they tangled up with Eridan’s own, and Sollux felt like he could cry with relief at finally getting the sweet sustained friction he’d needed for so long. He hitched his hips forward, and Eridan moved right back like he couldn’t help himself, mewling when that jolted the bulges inside him.

Oh, that was fun. Sollux could work with that.

“Hey,” Karkat said, dragging a hand down the bumps of Sollux’s spine.

“Hey what, KK?”

“Just… hey,” Karkat replied, and leaned to kiss him with so much tenderness that Sollux’s toes curled. Karkat smoothed a tacky hand over his hip, and Sollux drew back to pull a face at him, even though he really didn’t want to stop kissing him.

“You’re getting genetic material on me,” Sollux complained.

“You’re getting genetic material on your own damn self, so shut up,” KK responded, and kissed him again, and again, until Feferi pushed his face away and claimed Sollux’s mouth for herself. Eridan sucked little bruises into Sollux’s neck, and he didn’t stop moaning and his hips didn’t stop moving.

And no one stopped touching Sollux.

Afterwards, they sprawled naked and gross in Feferi’s pile, which was bigger and plusher than any of the ones Sollux had ever made out of t-shirts and wires. They were a mess of limbs and bare skin. Sollux knew they would all need hydration and food before long, but he fully intended to stay right where he was until he was too thirsty to see straight.

“I’m so glad it’s you three I fell for, and not some of the others,” Sollux mused, dreamy.

“What do you mean?” ED asked, voice muffled in KK’s shoulder.

“I mean,” Sollux answered. “You guys are great and all, but, more importantly, can you imagine me with Tavros? Equius? Lisping your partner’s name out in bed is so not sexy.”

“I don’t know,” Feferi said, propping her head up on one hand to look at him. “I kinda like it. Maybe you could try out our last names sometime.”

Sollux whapped her on the arm, and only managed to hurt his own hand.

“So!” Feferi said, gesturing with a flourish towards the brightest spot on the holographic map that hovered above their massive planning table. “Once the Condesce is dead, the most important damage control will be done in the capital, right here, where we’ll find the most resistance to societal reform. This will probably come from highbloods with long-standing government ties. It’s important that we keep them from barricading themselves or lashing out at us before we can properly talk to them. We’ll give the order once the Empress has fallen, and that’s when our people will move in. First, our necropath-led group will come in from the west.” She tracked the route with her finger, and a white line appeared in the map and followed along. “Next, we’ll have our psion team waiting by the south door. And of course, Gamzee’s clown friends should already be inside the building. If you’re a member of one of these teams, more detailed orders about where you’ll be beforehand and what to do will be delivered to your team leader before any of this needs to happen. We’re talking about this now because everyone involved has to be in place and waiting for the signal early, or we risk coming in too late and missing our chance. Any questions?”

Their new base was a lot bigger than the last one. Dozens of revolutionaries were seated around the room, all looking to Feferi and Karkat in the center. Not a single one of them raised their hand.

“Great,” Karkat said, stepping forward. “Take five minutes to talk amongst yourselves or stare into space or drink some water or whatever, do not fucking leave the block --Nitram, that means you-- and afterwards I’ll cover our more immediate plans for recruitment and the deconstruction of propaganda.” There was an expectant silence. “Well, what the fuck are you waiting for?” Karkat asked. “Go! Take your damn break, you’re dismissed!”

The room erupted with clusters of murmured conversation, none of it important.

“Karcraaab,” Feferi drawled, leaning into him. “How do you think I did?”

“I could’ve done better,” Karkat answered, trying to keep his eyes on the papers he held, even as his mouth twitched with the urge to smile.

“You _wish_ you could’ve done better, you basshole,” Feferi said, nudging him with one pointy elbow. She was tall enough that her jab missed his ribs and ended up somewhere around his armpit, but it was the thought that counted.

“You’re both gonna do fine,” said Eridan, scrolling through the pictures on his palmhusk.

“Or you’ll both do terribly,” Sollux volunteered, because he was helpful like that. “And everything will be ruined. Either way, teamwork, am I right?”

Eridan couldn’t hide his amused snort, even as Karkat’s face soured. Eridan’s hand found Sollux’s under the table, squeezed it, and then didn’t let go.

Feferi sighed, but her smile didn’t fall. And Karkat would only be pissy for as long as it took Sollux to get him out into the hallway and kiss that look off his face.

Sollux grinned. A pair of twos really was the best possible number.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to a friend who looked at this so many times for me: you know who you are.
> 
> Also thank you if you read this! I truly hope it was enjoyable.


End file.
